June ABC’s and this brings us to the half way mark for 2017. For the monthly publishers their Jan-June 2017 figure are available (to calculate) but the full Island of Ireland report is not out until 17th of August. Some of the papers’ numbers look extreme (in percentage terms) but all have a logical explanation.
As a block the tabloids are down 13% year on year, the decline can be attributed to The Sun’s decline of 20% – however this time last year The Sun and its Sunday sister were in the middle of a price promotion on the back of the Euro’s. So that accounts for their above average decline in sales year on year. The other Tabloids would have also been boosted by the football in ’16 so we are not comparing like with like.
The Times had an increase of 7,200 on the month which we can attribute to two factors: firstly is an increase on ‘retail’ sales to over 4,000 (from around 2,500). However the majority were “Below Full Rate. Secondly there were over 5,000 “multiple copy sales” compared to none the previous month. So, the meteoric increase in sales is more down to a massaging of the numbers rather than a stampede to the retail outlets.
The Sunday numbers comparisons were similarly affected by the Euros in ’16 across the tabloids and above that, there is very little in out of the ordinary.
I mentioned before that when the monthly numbers are averaged to a six month figure and compared to the papers that only file a half year figure – the correlation between the two sets of data are very strong, its 0.97 which is close to a “perfect positive relationship”
Calculating to the six month figures for the titles here shows that compared to the first half of 2016, they are showing a combined decline of 7%.
It was therefore interesting to read in the trading statement from Independent News and Media yesterday their take on the circulation declines where they state “Whilst INM has market leading titles, circulation continues to decline at c7% year on year.”
| Title | Jun-17 | May-17 | Jun-16 | M/M | Y/Y | % M/M | % Y/Y |
| Daily Mirror | 32,804 | 33,142 | 35,993 | -338 | -3,189 | -1% | -9% |
| Daily Record | 269 | 303 | 269 | -34 | 0 | -11% | 0% |
| Irish Daily Star | 49,336 | 48,939 | 53,513 | 397 | -4,177 | 1% | -8% |
| The Sun | 55,402 | 54,407 | 69,115 | 995 | -13,713 | 2% | -20% |
| Tabloids | 137,811 | 136,791 | 158,890 | 1,020 | -21,079 | 1% | -13% |
| Daily Express | 2,558 | 2,532 | 2,575 | 26 | -17 | 1% | -1% |
| Irish Daily Mail | 41,282 | 40,091 | 48,199 | 1,191 | -6,917 | 3% | -14% |
| The Daily Telegraph | 2,181 | 2,161 | 2,386 | 20 | -205 | 1% | -9% |
| Financial Times | 2,271 | 2,264 | 2,307 | 7 | -36 | 0% | -2% |
| The Guardian | 2,295 | 2,160 | 2,463 | 135 | -168 | 6% | -7% |
| The Times | 9,820 | 2,544 | 2,879 | 7,276 | 6,941 | 286% | 241% |
| Morning Market | 198,218 | 188,543 | 219,699 | 9,675 | -21,481 | 5% | -10% |
| Daily Star – Sunday | 15,081 | 14,905 | 15,313 | 176 | -232 | 1% | -2% |
| The Sun on Sunday | 53,222 | 51,364 | 66,767 | 1,858 | -13,545 | 4% | -20% |
| Sunday Mail | 735 | 779 | 723 | -44 | 12 | -6% | 2% |
| Sunday Mirror | 22,298 | 23,121 | 24,726 | -823 | -2,428 | -4% | -10% |
| The People | 8,476 | 8,656 | 9,346 | -180 | -870 | -2% | -9% |
| Sunday Express | 2,953 | 3,148 | 3,145 | -195 | -192 | -6% | -6% |
| Sunday Post | 611 | 657 | 749 | -46 | -138 | -7% | -18% |
| The Mail on Sunday | 76,464 | 78,110 | 85,309 | -1,646 | -8,845 | -2% | -10% |
| The Observer | 4,593 | 4,187 | 4,977 | 406 | -384 | 10% | -8% |
| The Sunday Telegraph | 1,798 | 1,723 | 2,232 | 75 | -434 | 4% | -19% |
| The Sunday Times | 77,099 | 77,223 | 75,967 | -124 | 1,132 | 0% | 1% |
| Sunday Market | 263,330 | 263,873 | 289,254 | -543 | -25,924 | 0% | -9% |
| Total Market | 461,548 | 452,416 | 508,953 | 9,132 | -47,405 | 2% | -9% |
